


all the tree tops turning red

by polyamory



Series: 30 days of tw femslash [11]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 30 Days of Femslash, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Ambiguous/Open Ending, F/F, On the Run, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-20
Updated: 2016-05-20
Packaged: 2018-06-09 14:32:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6911086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polyamory/pseuds/polyamory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Tell me." Now Erica's the one scowling. "I deserve to know."<br/>"My blood. They gave you my blood."<br/>"What? No way. That stuff was golden. Nobody's blood is golden."</p><p>for this writing prompt: a young person signs up to test experimental drugs, unaware that they’re being given injections of blood from a captured god</p>
            </blockquote>





	all the tree tops turning red

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is pretty dialogue heavy because i wanted to try something new. i'll probably come back to this, maybe make it into a series.  
> warnings for: human experimentation (this is mentioned but all happens before the start of the fic) the characters seeing dead bodies (non-graphic)

"Hey, you! Are you awake?" Erica slaps the unconscious girl. "Hey! Wake up!"

"Nggh," the girl flails. She's chained to some sort of medical chair.

"Wake up! We need to go!"

"Wha– Who are you?!" she spits, almost head-butting Erica.

"Woah, hey!"

"You're not one of the scientists," she says, eyes narrowed.

"No, I'm not."

"Who are you?"

"I'm Erica, but right now we should really get out of here."

"What's happening?" The girl looks around wildly but the room doesn't have any windows.

"Not sure exactly. Here let me unstrap you." Erica gets to work opening the straps around her ankles. "I think the complex is on fire."

"Where's everyone else?" the girl asks as Erica helps her up.

"Don't know. Come on, this way," she points down the corridor.

"Argh!" The girl's knees buckle as she tries to walk.

"Careful, don't fall." 

"Sorry, haven't really done a lot of running lately."

"Yeah, well. Here let me–" she puts her arm around the girl's waist. "Yeah just put your arm around my shoulder. Okay."

"Thank–" she breaks off, coughing violently. There's smoke seeping out from under closed doors.

"Woah, here, try not inhaling the smoke. Just put your shirt over your mouth." She tugs the girl's shirt up.

"I don't actually need to breathe."

"Yeah, right. And I don't actually need my legs for walking." They get to the door. It's open

"Ugh! It's so bright!" The girl throws up an arm, trying to cover her face from the sun. She sinks down against the outer wall of the building, but Erica pulls her back up.

"No, come on, we can't rest yet. We need to get further away."

"I can't–" Before the girl can finish Erica swings her up into her arms.

She runs towards the woods. The girl gives her a weird look, clinging to Erica's shoulders. When they get to the edge of the woods Erica looks back. The compound is smaller than it had seemed from the inside, but it's also burning like hell.

"Better we get a little more distance," she says and starts running again.

When they stop she sets the girl down, her back leaned up against a tree trunk.

"We're pretty deep, I think," Erica looks around. The trees are so thick and tall not much light reaches the ground, so there's not really much undergrowth. She sits down across from the girl.

"I can see in the dark." The girl sounds out of breath, even though Erica did all the running. She doesn't feel out of breath at all, though. "Can you?" the girl asks. She sounds suspicious.

"I think so." Erica frowns. That's definitely not normal. "How did you know that?"

"How can you do that?" the girl shoots back.

"Okay," Erica takes a deep breath. "Let's not fight. I get the feeling we're on the same side here."

"I was kept prisoner. Tortured. You look perfectly fine. Plus you were just wandering around. You knew exactly where the exit was. Maybe you are one of the scientists."

"I'm not. I was just following the big red exit signs above our heads." That's a lie. She just knew, somehow, where she had to go. She's not about to tell the girl that. "I'm Erica."

"Allison. So what were you doing there, then?"

"I have – had? – epilepsy. A doctor approached my family about a clinical trial for an experimental drug."

"What kind of drug?" Allison's eyes are intent.

"I don't know."

"Was it pills, transfusions–"

"It was transfusions. Some kind of, like, golden stuff."

Allison gasps, pressing a hand to her mouth. She whispers in a language Erica has never heard.

"What? Do you know what they gave me?"

"No." It's clear it's a lie.

"Tell me." Now Erica's the one scowling. "I deserve to know."

"My blood. They gave you my blood."

"What? No way. That stuff was golden. Nobody's blood is golden."

"No human's blood."

"What, you're telling me you're not human? Yeah, right."

Allison just looks at her.

"Then what are you?"

"I'm a god."

"You're God?" Erica can't help laughing at that.

"I'm  _ a god." _

"There's a difference?"

"Yes," Allison says but she doesn't elaborate.

"So, let's say what you're telling me is true–"

"It is."

"So if you're a god and they gave me your blood. What does that mean for me?"

"Think, Erica. You can see in the dark. You can carry me."

"You're not that heavy."

"To humans I am. My bones are filled with old elements, makes them heavier."

"And your blood is golden?"

"Ichor," Allison nods.

"So, I'm stronger–"

"And faster."

"I can see in the dark. They made me, what? Into a superhuman? Some kind of half god? A superhuman with epilepsy, that'll be a lot of good in a fight."

"You probably don't have epilepsy anymore. You probably won't even get a cold."

"Are you saying they made me–" Erica hesitates to say the word. It sounds so ridiculous. This whole conversation is ridiculous.

"Immortal?" Allison shrugs. "Maybe. Maybe you'll just live a lot longer."

"Are you immortal?"

"I can be killed, but hardly. And I won't die of natural causes."

"What else can you do?"

"I'm stronger, faster–"

"Do you really not need to breathe?" Erica asks, remembering what Allison had said before.

"Technically, no. But it's become a habit."

"How old are you exactly?"

Allison shrugs.

"So, if you're so much stronger and all, how did they catch?"

"I can be killed, I can be wounded. And when they took my blood – it weakened me."

"Well, shit."

There's silence for a moment and Erica looks off, staring at the spaces between the trees.

"Do you think anyone's following us?" she asks.

"How would I know?"

"Don't you have some kinda super hearing?"

"So do you and yours is probably stronger than mine is right now."

"Right." She concentrates hard but she can hear nothing except the noises of the forest. "Ugh. Nothing. Nothing I can hear at least."

Allison nudges her foot. She smiles, thin and faint but kind.

"Do you know what caused the fire?" she asks after a moment.

"Hell if I know," Erica shakes her head. "I was alone. I was just getting another transfusion and I saw flames out of the window, so I ran."

"Do you know how many other people there were?"

"I saw I think, two doctors, three different nurses. I never saw anyone else get transfusions."

"Why did you come for me? How did you even know to look for me?" Allison's got that suspicious look again.

"It was just, a feeling. Like my body knew where to go even though I didn't."

"Intuition."

"Sure, yeah."

Allison yawns.

"We should probably try to get some sleep. Keep going tomorrow." There's no way to tell what time of day it is this deep in the forest, but they're both tired.

Allison curls up on her side and Erica scoots closer, pressing her back against Allison's.

"What are you doing?" Allison whispers.

"Huddling for warmth."

"Okay."

"Go to sleep."

When Erica wakes up it's dark, but it was dark when she fell asleep and her eyes only take a moment to adjust.

Allison is still asleep. There are deep shadows under her eyes.

Instead of waking her, Erica picks her up as gently as possible and starts running. She weaves her way around the trees. The only direction she's really going is away from the compound, but her feet almost move on their own.

Sometime later she looks down and finds Allison blinking up at her.

"You should've woken me."

"You looked like you needed to sleep. Besides, we're faster this way."

"True," Allison admits. She doesn't look like she likes it.

"You're gonna get your power back, right? Now that they're not taking your blood anymore."

"Yeah," Allison says, but it sounds more like 'I hope so.'

"Are you hungry?" Erica asks after a while.

"No. You?"

"No, which is weird cause I'm pretty sure the last time I ate was a couple days ago. Another effect of your blood?"

"I don't technically need to eat, so probably, yeah."

"Huh. But you can eat, right?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I'm just thinking it could probably help you heal faster."

"Could."

"You don't know?"

"Sorry, haven't really dealt with the whole 'scientists stealing my blood' situation before."

"Alright."Erica looks around at the trees. She's still running, but they don't look like anything that would bear fruits.

"Yeah, I don't think so," Allison says, catching her looking.

"Figures. We're on the run with no idea where we are and no food."

"I think water's gonna be a bigger problem."

Erica groans. She stops running and puts Allison down.

"We have to think about what we'll do," she explains. "We can't just keep running in one direction, hoping it will get us somewhere. I mean, I don't know about you, but I didn't exactly get a good luck around when they brought me here." Allison's expression says it all. "Yeah, I thought so."

"What do you want to do?"

Erica looks up.

"I'm gonna try climbing up, see if I can make out anything above the trees."

"Be careful," Allison whispers.

"What did you see?" Allison is there as soon as Erica drops down onto the ground.

"There's still smoke coming from the compound, but we've made good headway. I couldn't see any kind of city, but it looks like there's some kind of area ahead with less trees. Could be a clearing or a village of some kind."

"How far ahead?"

"Hard to say, but probably a couple of days."

Allison's shoulders drop.

"I also discovered I can do this." Erica holds out her hands. She has claws instead of fingernails. "I was scrabbling down the trunk and they just popped out."

There's a small smile on Allison's face. She takes Erica's hand.

"You knew about this," Erica realizes.

"I wasn't sure you'd get them." Her hand is clawed, too, fingers threaded through Erica's.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't want you to be afraid of me."

"You should try to sleep," Erica says finally.

"And you?"

"I'll keep watch. It's what we should've done the first time around." She sits with her back against a broad tree.

"Wake me up halfway through, okay?"

Erica nods, but she's really not planning on it. Allison settles down, curled up into a ball with her head pillowed on Erica's thigh.

She keeps herself awake by sheer force of will. She's not tired exactly, but with nothing else to do, nothing to look at except infinite tree trunks, her eyes start to droop. She presses her head back against the rough bark of the tree.

"Stay awake, dammit."

She holds out a little longer before standing, gently scooping Allison up in her arms. Running isn't that much more exhausting, and at least it keeps her from being bored.

"You promised to wake me," Allison punches her in the shoulder.

"Sorry."

They stop to sleep three more times before they get to the clearing. There's no village, but there's a brook and then sun shining overhead.

"Mmh," Allison turns her face towards the sun. Erica lets her down and Allison walks over to the brook.

"You're walking better."

"I feel better." Allison looks over her shoulder with a smile. "Come on, drink. Goodness, nothing's ever tasted this good."

"I think that may just be deprivation speaking," Erica grins. Allison splashes water at her.

"I feel gross, I'm gonna wash up," she says and Erica turns around. "What," Allison snorts. "Suddenly you're shy?"

"I thought you might want some privacy."

"You need to wash just as much as I do, come on."

When Erica turns around Allison has already stripped out of the scrubs she was wearing. The brook isn't deep enough to swim in. When Allison crouches down the water reaches up to around her shoulders.

"Come on," she says again.

"Alright, alright." Erica steps out of her scrubs and sinks down into the cold water. She spreads out on her back, letting her hair flow in the gentle current.

"We should wash our clothes, the sun will try them. No telling how long It'd take in the woods," Allison says

"Yeah, you're right."

They run their clothes through the water and spread them out in the grass to dry. Allison lies down next to them, turning her face towards the sun, but Erica stays in the water. It's a long time before she starts to feel the cold. When she lies down Allison takes her hand.

"Thank you."

"For what?" Erica looks over at her but Allison's eyes are closed.

"For saving me."

"Yeah," is all Erica can say.

"We should follow the river," she goes on after a moment. "It's not the straightest line away from the compound, but we'll have water. And we can make sure we're not walking in circles."

"What if it bends back?"

"Then we leave it, but until then it's our best chance of survival."

"Yeah."

"Sleep a little."

Allison laughs. "Half the things you say to me is telling me to sleep."

"You need it."

She doesn't try to argue with that.

Erica wakes her when their clothes are dry.

"Hey, Allison, time to keep moving. Do you wanna try walking for a bit so you can get some strength back in your legs?"

"Good idea."

They start walking alongside the brook. The trees close ranks around them. Not even the brook manages to cut a line through the forest, the trees linking branches overhead.

After a while Allison breaks into a light jog. 

"Are you sure?" Erica asks, keeping pace.

"Yeah, I feel better. Especially after the sun."

"Alright." They keep going.

It's all very monotonous. They run, Allison setting the tempo, and when she's exhausted, Erica picks her up and carries her. They drink from the river, which runs a straight line through the woods. At night Allison sleeps with her head in Erica's lap.

When Erica starts dropping off she shakes Allison awake.

"Hey, sorry. I think I need to sleep for a little bit."

"Yeah, of course." Allison sits up.

"Wake me up in a bit," Erica says.

When she wakes up she feels groggy and Allison is stroking her hair.

"How long did I sleep?"

"Hard to say." Erica can hear the smile in Allison's voice.

"I told you to wake me up," she scowls.

"You need to sleep, Erica. Just because your body can do more now, doesn't mean you should stretch it thin. You won't be much use in a fight that way."

She's got a point.

"Alright. You're right."

"Do you wanna keep going?"

"Yeah, sure. Let's get some distance."

There's almost no concept of time. The light in the forest is always the same, so there's no way to count the days. They sleep when they want and the rest of the time they run. Allison is stronger now. She can run long stretches and she's getting faster all the while.

After they've slept five more times Erica climbs up into the tree tops again.

"No sign of the compound anymore, but no sign of anything else, either."

"Nothing?"

"I've looked in every direction, nothing but trees to the horizon."

There's silence for a moment.

"I have to–" Erica starts. "I have to ask this. You're a god, so I'm assuming there are other things I don't know about the world. Could it be we're in some kind of, I don't know, other universe, some kind of alien planet? Does stuff like that exist?" Her voice sounds a little panicky towards the end.

Allison thinks for a long moment. "There are portals to different dimensions."

"So you're saying this– this world could just be all woods. With no one here except for us."

"We can't be sure of that."

"But it could be." Erica's voice sounds strange even to her own ears.

"Erica, Erica. Look at me. Calm down." Allison's hands are on her cheeks, grounding her. "We have each other. Breathe."

"We have each other," Erica repeats and forces her breathing to match Allison's.

Allison pulls her in for a hug and Erica's surrounded by the steady rhythm of her heartbeat. They stay like that for a long time.

Finally Erica pulls away.

"We have to plan for the worst case."

"Erica–"

"No, I'm not panicking again, but we have to assume that it's true, that we're all alone. What do we do? We can't keep running forever, eventually we'll need food. Eventually we'll need to stop."

"You're saying we should go back to the base."

"If anyone else survived, either they ran, like us and then we might never find them again, or they stayed at the compound."

"They might be scientists."

"Then we fight them," Erica holds up a clawed hand. "And if not, we find other survivors. Better chances of survival."

"How do we find our way back?"

"We follow the brook back to the clearing. Then, well, I've got a pretty strong intuition to get away from the compound so we'll just go in the opposite direction of what my body tells me to do."

"And then we'll, what? Salvage the wreckage?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Alright. Let's do it then." Allison rolls back her shoulders.

They sleep fifteen times on their way back.

"I'm more tired than before," Erica says when she wakes Allison up.

"Probably cause you need food."

"Yeah, probably. But you've been getting stronger."

"You're still part human. I'm all god and my blood is coming back to me."

"Good." Erica feels Allison's fingers thread through her hair as she falls asleep.

They also have to move slower because it turns out that if Erica runs faster her body automatically takes over and takes them away from the compound. So they move at a light jog.

Erica starts sleep walking the seventh time she sleeps. She wakes up almost immediately, Allison's fingernails digging into her arm. After that she starts sleeping with Allison spooning her, arms wrapped around Erica's body to hold her down.

"We have each other," she murmurs into Erica's ear.

They notice right away when they get near the compound, because it gets a lot brighter.

"Let's stay here for a bit. See if there's any movement," Allison suggests. She leans back against a tree and starts braiding her hair.

"What are you doing that for?"

"In case we get into a fight I don't wanna be blinded by my hair. Want me to do yours?"

"Sure." Erica sits in between Allison's legs as Allison runs her fingers through Erica's hair to untangle it.

"I don't have a hair tie." It's such a mundane thing to say, after everything they've been through, that it almost makes Erica laugh. She's still watching the compound, listening for any sign of life.

"It'll hold. It's so tangled already it's not like it'll slip right out of the braid."

"Fair point, I s'pose."

"The free space is gonna be a problem," Allison says, looking over Erica's shoulder out at the compound. She's done braiding, but Erica doesn't move away. She leans against Allison and Allison puts her hand around Erica's waist.

"Yeah. I'd rather cross it at night, but I wanna explore the compound by day."

"We could wait for dawn. It's a compromise."

So they do.

"It's weird, seeing the sun again," Allison murmurs. They have an unspoken agreement to keep quiet, even though the compound lies silent and still.

"Allison?" Erica says a while later. Allison's breathing is slow and rhythmical. She's asleep.

Erica leans back against her and settles in to watch the moon.

When it rises she gasps, elbowing Allison to wake her up.

"Look!" she breathes

"Holy–"

There are two moons rising side by side over the horizon.

"It's true then, we're alone."

"You don't know that," Allison says. "We're not on Earth, certainly. But we might not be alone."

"But we have no way of knowing."

They watch the twin moons cross the horizon. When dawn comes they make their way across the open space between the forest and the compound. By the time they reach the perimeter the sun is already rising.

"Claws out, eyes open," Erica says and Allison nods.

"Do you wanna go inside first?"

"Let's check around the fence, see how much damage the fire did."

It's not as bad as Erica expected. The buildings are blackened and their windows are burst, but they're still standing. There are three buildings in total, angled so they form a triangle with a courtyard in the middle.

They make their way around carefully, steering clear of the glass shards, barefooted as they are.

"Up," Allison mouths, pointing to the roof of the nearest building.

They scale the wall as silently as possible. Erica looks out at the forest surrounding the compound on all sides, but the buildings are not very high. She'd have a better view up in the trees.

Allison crouches down and makes her way to the side looking out over the courtyard.

"All clear," she whispers. The roof is barren so they jump back down.

The first building they go into is familiar.

"This is where I was held," Allison says, looking into one of the rooms.

"And this is where I got my transfusions." Erica points towards another room. The door is ripped out of the frame.

"Did you do that?" Allison asks.

"I think so."

Everything is covered in soot and ash, the furniture mostly burned away.

They walk past more rooms.

"What were they?"

Erica looks inside.

"Looks like they were used for transfusions."

"And these?" Allison points towards a row of identical doors. She tries one. "It's locked." She rips the door open.

A body falls towards them and they both jump back, but it's already dead.

"They must've suffocated from the smoke."

"Scrubs just like ours," Erica says. "So these must be the other humans."

"I guess they needed to breathe, after all."

"Let's keep going. There's no one alive here."

The corridor ends in another door, this one leading out into the courtyard.

"Left or right?" Erica asks.

"Let's go left."

There's another body lying in the corridor. This one is burned beyond recognition. More bodies in the rooms they walk past, not as severely burned.

“Looks like these are the doctors.” 

"Looks like they were trying to get out," Allison says, looking down at the bodies.

"Why didn't they?"

"Don't know." Allison shrugs.

In the third room they hit the jackpot.

"Allison, come look."

"What is it?"

"It's an ax," Erica grins.

They smile at each other for a moment, Erica holding the ax, before they remember where they are.

"Let's check out the last building," Allison says.

There are no more bodies. The building seems to be one large storage room.

"Figures that the last building we go into is the one with all the good stuff," Erica huffs."

Allison is already brushing soot off the first boxes.

"Thank goodness, they're labeled. And it seems the fire didn't hurt them too bad."

"Not much to burn with a bunch of metal boxes."

"Okay," Erica says a while later, squinting into the sun. "Let's do an inventory of everything we've got."

They dragged everything they want to take outside, now they just have to pack it.

"We've got two backpacks and three duffel bags to pack everything we need." Allison is crouched down between the boxes. "There's canned food, a lot. Sleeping bags, a tool kit, thank fuck, and some clothes."

"Shoes?" Erica looks up from where she's inspecting the backpacks.

"No shoes, but coats. We're gonna need those eventually."

"We're gonna need shoes, too. Please tell me there's more than just coats." She comes over to Allison.

"Yup, but it's all scrubs like ours."

"Ugh," Erica groans.

"Hey," Allison takes her hand. "We can just tie shirts around our feet when we need shoes. We don't get cold that quickly, remember?"

"Yeah."

"Our odds have never looked better."

"We still don't know what caused the fire, though."

"Is it important?"

"I don't know," Erica shrugs.

"Cause I really don't wanna stay here any longer. This place is giving me the creeps."

"Alright, come on. Let's pack up, then."

Between the two of them it doesn't take long before they're shouldering the backpacks, duffel bags in hand.

There's never any discussion about which direction to go in, they just start heading back where they came from.

At least that way they know lies water.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr at twlesbians


End file.
